A Venezuelan family is suing the federal government over how immigration authorities handled the medical care of their 18-month-old daughter, who suffered life-threatening respiratory failure while in custody and was repeatedly denied the treatment and medication doctors had prescribed.
As first reported by NBC News, Kheilin Valero Marcano and Stiven Arrieta Prieto were arrested Dec. 9 in El Paso by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents along with their daughter, Amalia.
They were later transferred to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, where hundreds of children are detained with their parents while awaiting removal, a facility advocates and pediatric experts have warned is unsafe for young children.
According to NBC News, Amalia had been healthy before immigration officers detained her family in December. But soon after entering custody, her condition began to decline.
The lawsuit states that Amalia was rushed to a children’s hospital in San Antonio on Jan. 18, where doctors treated her for pneumonia, COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus, and severe respiratory distress. After 10 days in the hospital, she was sent back to immigration detention, where federal officials “denied her access to the medication that doctors prescribed for her at the hospital,” the lawsuit says.
“After baby Amalia had been hospitalized for 10 days, ICE thought this baby should be returned to Dilley, where she was denied access to the medicines that the hospital doctors told her she needed,” said Elora Mukherjee, a Columbia Law School professor and director of the school’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, who filed the petition seeking the family’s release. “It is so outrageous.”
When she was discharged, doctors said Amalia required breathing treatments through a nebulizer and nutritional supplements to help her regain strength and weight. But once back at the Dilley detention center, the lawsuit says medical staff confiscated her nebulizer, albuterol and supplements.
As Amalia remained in detention, Mukherjee and other immigration lawyers repeatedly urged federal officials to release the family, warning that the child’s condition could quickly worsen.
Medical experts who reviewed Amalia’s records submitted affidavits warning that returning a medically fragile toddler to detention without reliable access to prescribed medication placed her at serious risk, with one physician cautioning that she faced a “high risk for medical decompensation and death.”
After pressure to release the family intensified, Amalia and her parents were freed Feb. 6. Mukherjee said ICE did not provide Amalia’s prescriptions or her birth certificate upon release.
After NBC News published its report, the Department of Homeland Security called the account false in a social media post, stating that ICE “provides comprehensive medical care” to anyone in custody.
“Candidly, this is the best healthcare many aliens have received in their entire lives,” the post read.
This entire story is a lie.
We provide COMPREHENSIVE medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days, and… pic.twitter.com/jOwKDC6Dbw
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) February 9, 2026
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin also denied claims that Amalia’s medication had been withheld, saying the child remained in a medical unit and received appropriate treatment and prescribed medication upon returning to Dilley.
CoreCivic, the company that operates Dilley under a federal contract, referred questions to DHS and said in a statement that “the health and safety of those entrusted to our care” is its top priority.
Originally published on Latin Times
